"I don't know," Bauer said in the quiet of the Indians clubhouse. "There are very few people in this world that actually understand me. And take the time to understand me. I don't even understand myself half the time.

"So I wouldn't expect anyone else to have an understanding on what makes me tick."

This is a 22-year-old right-hander who already has a reputation after only four big-league starts. He knows what they were saying in Arizona on his way out the door. Too stubborn. Too contrarian. Too eccentric.

A radical in the conservative in the world of Major League Baseball, a mechanical engineering major in college who can play a mean game of chess one night, and sing rap the next, with his latest entitled: "You Don't Know Me."

"When you go against the norm, not just in baseball," Bauer says, "you face a little scrutiny and become very noticeable. Some people focus on it.

"People draw their own conclusions, and people who don't even know me, are saying, 'Oh, he's this, or he's that.' You can't do that. You're not in position to do that.

"This whole thing of forming opinions of someone, based on what other people say, is completely ridiculous."

Yes, he's different. He plays long-toss from 350 feet. He walks around in the clubhouse carrying a long shoulder tube for arm exercises. He meditates. And he can explain the science, methodology and physiology of his pitching mechanics.

"He's got a lot of stuff in that head of his," says veteran pitcher Brett Myers. "I sat down with him (Monday) to talk about his mechanics, and he was talking about physics, chemical reactors and biochemistry crap, and body creating a force. I'm like, 'What the hell?' I couldn't even pronounce the words he's saying.

"But you know what, he's completely different than what you heard about him. You hear he's this rude guy, or stuck in his ways. He was great. He gave me the respect of listening to me.

"I don't know who gives him all of the ideas, but he's a whole lot smarter than me or you. I don't know if I could think that much."

Jason Giambi, 42 and trying to make the Indians, already in the big leagues when Bauer was 4, knows what it's like to be considered different. He had long hair, tattoos and a wild lifestyle back in the days with the Oakland A's. And he always preferred hitting in the indoor cage to taking live batting practice.

"I kind of love it that he thinks outside the box," Giambi says. "I love that he's a young player with enough confidence in himself to do things differently. And it's different only because some of the stuff goes against baseball reasoning."

Bauer's unique methodology to pitching made him the nation's best college while at UCLA in 2011, when he went 13-2 with a 1.25 ERA. He was 12-2 with a 2.45 ERA in the minors last year for the Diamondbacks, but as soon as he struggled in the big leagues - 1-2 with a 6.06 ERA in four starts - along came the character attacks and ridicule of his throwing program.

Six months later, the Diamondbacks traded him, questioning his maturity and personality.

Bauer politely declines to lash back. Sure, maybe some mistakes were made, but there's not a single regret.

"How am I supposed to wish I did something differently if I didn't know in the first place," Bauer says. "I learn lessons from everything I do in life. I'm tryng to figure it out just like anybody else. I wish I would have thrown 90 mph at the age of 14. Do I regret it? No.

"Everybody makes mistakes. I've probably made some big mistakes. But the real mistake would be not learning from your mistakes."

Alan Jaeger, Bauer's pitching consultant and family friend, says he believes Bauer will live up to the original expectations, and the Indians say they have a future ace.

"I personally feel like the best is coming out of this kid," Jaeger says. "He feels like this is a new beginning."

And for those critics out there on the radio talk shows, in the newspapers, on the internet and Twitter, Bauer frankly doesn't care.

"My life isn't different because of what people think of me," Bauer says. "Really, the only time it sucks for me is when people on Twitter blast you for no reason.